“You treacherous, double-crossing, swamp trash,” she yelled into his face. “You promised me you would only watch the attack at The Barrens, that you’d stay safely on one of the islands. You were ‘too old to chance your arm in anything like that’, eh? What about ‘I won’t be in any danger?’ or ‘what could go wrong?’ ”
She pulled her arm back for another punch, but Hudnee hastily backed up, so she folded her arms in front of her, and stamped angrily on the boards of the dock instead.
Hudnee’s mind was whirling. Damn women remember everything a man says, he thought desperately. It’s not fair!
He stepped warily forward, saying, “things just happened, Daneesa – you know how it is – I didn’t have a chance to stop and think about it,” but she raised her fists again.
Then he saw the tears in her eyes and understood.
She had thought his fighting days were over. She had thought she would never again have to wait at home for him, enduring uncertain days and agonizing nights, hoping he hadn’t been badly hurt – or worse.
He took her in his arms, smothering her struggles, until she clung desperately to him while he murmured apologies in her ears. The others on the dock didn’t know whether to good-humoredly voice their encouragement, or leave the two of them to their private moment. Eventually they drifted away along the walkways, heading back to their duties.
Daneesa pushed Hudnee away, and he took her hand, looking contritely down at the dock. The two girls ran up to greet their father with squeals of delight, and he led his family back to their wooden house among the giant trees of the sea forest.
The story of the Alliance attack on the mining base at The Barrens became a legend over the following days and quadroons of the Hud year. The attack on The Barrens had been a display of concentrated sound and fire that had been beyond the comprehension of the people of the planet.
There had been some signs of the power and strangeness of life on other planets in the last few years. The militia already knew of the miracles performed by the Human medical team, and some had even seen the strange shape that had fallen out of the sky to bring the medical team to the militia on the march to Roum. The villagers at Shellport knew that Menona reported daily to another planet. But the display at the Barrens had left an indelible mark on the villagers involved.
It was also the topic under discussion at the first council meeting of the following quadroon, when Hudnee, Daneesa, Habna, Menon, Menona and Battrick were once again gathered at Habna’s place to discuss the running of Shellport.
Habna was more steamed up than Hudnee could remember seeing her in a long time.
“I’ve had to speak to several of the villagers about taking down shrines to the pale ones in their houses,” she said emphatically. “For the sake of all we hold dear, what is the matter with them!”
She subsided, clearly making an effort to control herself.
“The Humans are people, just like us. They feel and they think. They are not the powers that run the universe! Slave-like devotion to anything, spiritual or otherwise, just throws away personal power for nothing. There is no growth for a person in that!”
“We know what you mean, Habna,” said Menon reassuringly. “It was you that taught me how people will always be people, and often foolish with it. That’s when we have to show them a better way, and hope they will come round to it when they’re ready.”
Habna snorted. “I know that, it’s just so . . . hard. I was there at the birth of most of these people. They’re like my own, and it hurts me to see them making foolish choices.”
Everyone present nodded. There didn’t seem to be much more any of them could say. Habna knew what she needed to do, she was just having trouble adjusting to the foolishness of some of the villagers.
“Prometheus wants more pilots for the Javelins,” broke in Menona. She was acting in her role as keeper of the sub-space radio Reegis had left behind.
“Despite the fact the war effort now revolves around the Valkrethi,” she said, “Finch tells me Cordez is anticipating further changes, changes that are likely to bring the Javelins back into the front line.”
They were all silent for a while, thinking about the Valkrethi. Menon and Metris had described the immense alloy and composite giants that had landed at Spitzbergen, and how the pale strangers climbed up and rode inside them. It was more than the villagers could really understand.
“We will have to send word much further afield if we want more trainees,” said Menon. Habna had set a limit on the number of villagers who could volunteer from any one area, so those available to hunt, fish and forage for the village did not drop below a reasonable level.
The Shellport scouts were now traveling further afield to recruit volunteers, and it was taking longer to explain the situation to villagers for whom the pale strangers were only rumors.
“Metris and I could start out in a day or two,” said Menon. “Dooplehuel catches at Shellport have been good lately, and some of the land animals are coming back in increasing numbers. Menona tells me we’re ahead on seaweed quotas, and the trial tuber plantings in the sand hills are doing well.”
Menona sighed. She didn’t relish the thought of losing Menon for several quadroons while he went to the villages inland looking for pilots for the Alliance Javelins. At least she was unlikely to find herself in Daneesa’s position, with her man caught up in fierce fighting again at the Barrens. She reached across and squeezed Daneesa’s hand.
“Where is Metris?” said Battrick, looking at Menon.
“Down at Spitzbergen, overseeing another load of gravel,” came the reply. Along with the trial plantings of tubers in the sand hills had come decisions by some of the villagers to build Hudnee’s houses of rock, built out of urdra mix as he had named it, along the beaches. That way the workers would be closer to the tuber plantings.
Habna nodded her head to herself, as she often did when she was thinking. She was thinking about the village way of life.
Their society was changing, she realized. They were becoming more settled, and more dependent on the land. Would the old ways of dependence on the sea, building houses among the giant trees of the sea forest, one day be gone?
She would have to think about this, and consider carefully whether it was a good thing or not. She would have to ask herself whether it really mattered in the overall growth of awareness among the people of Hud.
They didn’t know it yet, but the people were about to become part of an interstellar civilization – when the Hud pilots brought back all the new and strange ways of Prometheus after the war.
How would the villagers adapt? How would the settlements keep their young people after they had seen such sights and wonders that everyday life would seem slow and boring?
Leadership, she decided. More training, more councils, more rites of passage. The young people needed to know being part of their own culture meant something. It was a long list of things to do, and she was only one woman.
She sighed. It needed to be done, and soon.
CHAPTER 29
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Roberto was presenting some tantalizing material to the research team. They’d all been so busy with essential work for the war effort that there had been little time for anything else. Despite his growing interest in the Druanii, and what they looked like, Roberto had only had so much spare time.
Still, he had gathered together a lot more information about this elusive offshoot of the Caerbrindii, and he was still working on the data the research team had downloaded from the main Rothii archive.
Celia was feeling more comfortable with Roberto during their working hours, but when she met him away from the supporting environment of her office, her heart raced and her legs turned to jelly.
“There’s no evidence of a Druanii home planet,” Roberto was saying to the others, “or anything that might be an admin base, a mining site, or a hidden city. Still, they live among the sparse stars and unimaginable distances at the edges of the galaxy. Who knows
what’s out there.
“I’ve found mounting evidence they use wormholes to travel extreme distances around the outside of the galaxy. Theirs would be the most sophisticated technology we’ve ever come across in an alien race.”
The research team were silent for a moment. If this were true it would open up incredible possibilities.
“I thought Grisham’s Proof showed the energy to set up a wormhole, if we ever had the technology, was greater than the energy used by the orscantium drive to cover the same distance,” said Andre.
“Yes, that’s definitely the case,” replied Roberto, “but the Druanii may have found a more efficient way of doing things. No one has factored in a sub-space framework supporting a wormhole in normal space, for instance.”
Andre subsided, still not impressed with the possibility of wormhole travel.
Roberto activated a 3D animator on the large, central table in front of him. He brought up the image of a long, dragon-like figure they were already familiar with. It moved restlessly within the field of the animator. For a moment it turned its head, so that deep, dark eyes within a halo of sharp scales looked questioningly at them.
Roberto had taken over investigations into the shape, anatomy and function of the Druanii form as an area of personal interest, in the same way he had previously researched the Rothii. He was fast becoming the research team’s resident expert on the anatomy of alien form and biological function.
“The original Druanii had limbs,” he said. “I’m fairly certain of that. They managed to build a technological society, and that has to involve something like hands to manipulate the environment with.
“However, I’ve now unearthed a number of images that show them without limbs. Since the Druanii, like the Invardii, embraced the concept of a hybrid form, they could have changed their DNA so limbs didn’t form at birth. But they didn’t.
“A close inspection of the images shows the limbs have been surgically removed. Apart from the many questions as to why they might do that, the big question is, how do they now manipulate their environment?” He paused, to let them digest this.
“In the places where we would expect their limbs to be, we find mechanical inserts. This is nothing more than a small alloy plate and a raised metal dome on the outside. But I’m imagining an insert, flush with the exterior skin, that’s connected to the nerve endings that used to manipulate the limb.
“Now, this next step is quite a leap of faith,” he warned them.
“I think the dome sends messages to any machine you want to activate in your environment.
“Imagine you have a couple of these inserts in your chest, for example, and we’ll let you keep your arms and legs for this demonstration.
“Er, ladies, you can imagine the same, a little lower down,” he said, after a moment’s thought.
Celia and Jeneen grinned at his discomfort. For Celia, it did her good to see him as only Human. She had been building him up too much in her mind lately.
“So, you have a fork full of breakfast in one hand,” continued Roberto, “and a cup in the other, and you want to clean up the preparation area. Part of your mind sends signals through your inserts to the servo-mechanisms in the preparation area to clean up while you finish your meal.
“You don’t just switch some sort of ‘on’ button, you actually send continuous signals to the servo-mechanisms – as if your ‘hands’ were present and active there – while you enjoy your breakfast.
“This suggests the Druanii mind has evolved to be more capable of multi-tasking than we are. The inability of the Druanii to communicate in simple language also supports this idea. Their thought processes appear vague and hard to understand to us – especially in their use of language – because they’re doing ten things at once.”
The research team found this fascinating, but that was as far as Roberto had got. Investigations into what Druanii starships might look like and how they would function, by Andre, had drawn a blank. As had investigations into the Druanii social structure by Sallyanne, who worked with them occasionally.
When the meeting was over, Roberto followed Celia back to her office. Once they were both inside he tapped the door panel and the door slid shut. Celia overlooked the breach of protocol – in her office she would normally decide what the settings were – and looked up enquiringly.
“Madam looks tired,” he began sympathetically. “It would appear Madam needs to have some time away from the demands of work. Would Madam care to be squired to the Orchid Room for dinner?”
“Have you been taking lessons from Andre?” she said with a smile. “Him and his knights and ladies. It usually gets him a clip across the back of the head from Jeneen. I’d question your approach if I were you.”
“Ah,” said Roberto, pretending to be crestfallen, “to be compared to such a lesser being.”
Celia had to work hard to suppress a smile.
“Don’t let Andre hear you say that,” she said sternly.
She considered his proposal. the Orchid Room was Prometheus’ attempt to provide a more sophisticated eating establishment, and she had to say it was nice. The thought of going there with Roberto didn’t bother her unduly – it was a public place – but what if he wanted to move on to somewhere more private after that. And he did want to be alone with her. There was no doubt in her mind about that.
Her heart began to race again. Don’t think about it, she told herself desperately. One thing at a time, just deal with what’s in front of you, dammit!
Once she’d calmed down a little, she accepted his invitation with a brief smile. Then she cut the conversation short, pleading an inundation of work. He suggested a time to meet, and left her office with an ornate Elizabethan flourish. Once he’d left the office she dropped her head into her arms.
Wouldn’t it be easier just to stay away from men for the rest of her life? She thought. But then part of her refused to keep hiding away for the rest of her born days. It was a coward’s way out. Besides, there was always the possibility of some sort of internal change in her – it was just the upheaval of that change that stopped most people from trying.
Roberto was prompt. It was 1800 hours exactly when the door to her rooms recognized Roberto as the caller, and announced him. It was very fortunate she was head of her department and had a set of rooms to herself, she thought anxiously.
She had tried on everything she owned in a frantic attempt to appear formal yet casual, demure yet sexy, and fashionable without being ostentatious. It was an impossible task!
“Men should never be early,” he said with a smile, when she opened the door. “Being late would have given you more time to get ready, and probably been preferable, but then I would be accused of not really being interested. It’s not easy being a man, is it?”
She had to agree with him on that one.
They took their time as they strolled to the Orchid Room. There were wonders all about them, but familiarity with Prometheus had dulled their senses to it. On the way to the large sky dome next to The Orchid Room, they passed a fierce game of raquette in one of the underground caverns. Gravitysum had been shut down in this area, and the teams were capable of reaching the top of the cavern in one prodigious leap, and were airborne for long periods of time in normal play.
A long observation window in the passageway showed Celia and Roberto the two teams locked in a desperate bid for control of the unpredictable shuttle, which weaved this way and that as its center of gravity shifted randomly under the influence of the micro-motors inside it.
“Isn’t that Jeneen?” said Celia, as a platinum blond mane shot past the window in hot pursuit of the shuttle.
“I think so,” said Roberto with a smile. “Andre must be in there somewhere too. We could take that up, you and I. It would be a good break from research. Get the blood flowing, clear the brain.”
Celia nodded. His unspoken message was clear. We could do these things if we were a happy and successful couple, like Andre and Jeneen. Suddenly tha
t seemed a daunting task, even impossible, all over again.
A chill descended on their conversation, but Roberto ignored it. He chatted happily as they made their way to the sky dome. The mood lifted as they looked out at the vast curvature of Neptune, covering half the evening sky above them. A moon rose over Neptune’s horizon. It shone softly in the reflected light from the far-distant Sun.
Roberto took Celia’s hand, and they gazed in wonder at the sight. The moon had to be Triton, the only moon of any real mass orbiting Neptune, and a similar size to the Moon of Earth. Celia thought appreciatively it was probably that – how much like the Moon Triton was – that made the moment magic.
Prometheus had been built on Neptune’s second moon, Proteus, a speck of rock by comparison, and the next largest, Nereid, had been completely consumed by mining more than 50 years before.
Knowing all these scientific facts didn’t deaden the moment, it was still a beautiful image that hung in space before them. Celia squeezed Roberto’s hand.
Roberto smiled. He wasn’t a ladies’ man, but he knew enough to let the beauty of the evening work on Celia for him. They spent a little more time taking in the vast blue bulk of Neptune beneath them, the small red disc of the Sun so far away, and the pale ghost of Triton on the far horizon, before they came to the Orchid Room.
The sumptuous entrance to the establishment housed a collection of off-world life forms that had been discovered in the Solar System over the last century, as exploration teams spread out into more and more hostile environments.
They were looking at strange sulfur crystals that were in many senses alive. There was a form of lichen discovered on the moons of Jupiter. Tube worms that came from volcanic vents in the seas under the frozen surface of one of the outer moons, and complex geodes from Triton that had too much of an organized structure to be inorganic. The geodes has so far defied all attempts to bring them back to ‘life’.
With their appetites sharpened by the roundabout walk to the restaurant, they turned into the Orchid Room ready to appreciate what it had to offer. A waiter seated them immediately, and they began an enjoyable game of selecting dishes from the menu card.
Invardii Box Set 2 Page 36